UA football: Recruiting a tough go for Kish

Arizona's Interim head coach Tim Kish runs off the field after
their win over UCLA in their NCAA game Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011 in
Tucson. (AP Photo/DAVID KADLUBOWSKI - Arizona Republic)

The questions come every time Tim Kish calls a recruit who,
hoping to play for Mike Stoops, verbally committed to the Arizona
Wildcats' football program.

There aren't many answers.

But Kish, the UA's acting head coach, does his best to stay in
touch - even if it requires selling a school that may not want him
back next season.

"Absolutely," he said this week. "I just try to keep the
relationship going with the kids. We talk about Arizona the way we
can, and the way things are heading."

Which is … well, nobody is sure.

Stoops was fired a month ago today, with athletic director Greg
Byrne starting a nationwide search for his replacement. But with no
coach hired and Byrne staying mum on any possible replacements,
details about the future of the program are hard to come by.

Arizona's 2012 recruiting class waits - and, in some cases,
bolts.

Safety Leo Thomas re-opened his recruitment within a day of
Stoops' Oct. 10 firing, in part because the Wildcats' deposed head
coach was the one recruiting him. Linebacker A.J. Hilliard
decommitted two weeks ago, and has his eyes set on TCU.

The rest of Arizona's recruits remain in a wait-and-see mode,
hoping that the Wildcats' new head coach will run a system - and
program - that's worthy of a follow-up to their verbal
commitment.

Some, like tight end Taylor McNamara, are taking recruiting
trips as they wait.

McNamara, a four-star recruit from San Diego's Westview High
School, visited Cal on Oct. 14 and Colorado a week later. He went
to Washington last week for the Huskies' game against Oregon, and
will "trip" to Notre Dame and Oklahoma later this month.

Arizona's skill-position players - notably, the quarterbacks,
wide receivers and running backs - have more to lose if the next
coach runs a different system.

Arizona's current assistants can still recruit for the program,
and bring players to visit, but can't guarantee that anything -
from the coaching staff to the system, even the desire to keep
players - will stay the same.

Byrne has designated himself as an official recruiter for the
program with Stoops gone and has reached out the Wildcats' 2012
class to answer questions.

Arizona's current assistants are choosing honesty over flattery
-possibly a recruiting first.

Running backs coach Garret Chachere tells recruits that the UA's
next coach will be a good fit, whoever he is. Rather than talking
football, he sells the Arizona experience.

"Basically, I tell them what I've always told them: I thought
Arizona is a great place to go to school. Myself and my family
really enjoy it. I've never met anyone, and I dare them to find
someone, anyone who went to school here who hasn't enjoyed it," he
said.

Quarterbacks coach Frank Scelfo is direct.

"We tell them, 'Hey, stay with us,'" he said. "Look, they
committed to the University of Arizona. It's a great place. There's
a nice tradition here, there's a good rich history, and when those
kids came in and visited and saw what we had in place, it had
nothing to do with this staff."

Kish, the UA's lead in-state recruiter and arguably the best on
staff, understands why the last month has been quiet on the
recruiting front. Still, the coaches haven't quit.

Ten days after Stoops was fired, the UA brought one player -
Chris Solomon, a three-star safety from West Covina, Calif. - to
campus for an official visit. They gave him a pass to the Wildcats'
nationally televised game against UCLA, and did their best to
showcase the school - from the game-day atmosphere to the academics
and facilities.

Selling football, for now, is silly.

"You have to pick a place where you're going to feel at home,"
Chachere said. "Many things can come up over time, whether its
struggling with grades, struggling with playing time, maybe a
sickness or a death at home, maybe an injury. … All these things
happen during a four-, five-year process. If you're not at a place
where you feel at home, or feel that people there don't care about
you, it makes the things that come along in a young man's life
twice as tough to deal with. …

"The kids who picked this school picked it for the right
reasons, and it'll work out."